Lengthening throat on lever gun chamber?

[abcollector]

Anyone every personally lengthened the throat on their lever gun chamber for use with LFN/WFN lead bullets? Is it a straight up process? Is it something that can be done with the barrel still attached to the receiver? What tool/s are needed?

I have a Browning 53 in 32-20 that engraves the rifling on the ogive upon chambering and can't realistically seat the bullet any deeper. Sometimes it will stick the bullet if you attempt to eject the unfired cartridge.

If the throat is lengthened to allow the lead bullets to chamber, how is the rifle for shooting jacketed bullets?

[Pete44ru]

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IMO, a more important question would be: Will the rounds loaded with the longer bootlits actually feed from the magazine to the chamber in YOUR rifle ?

No tickee, no laundry - if they won't pass muster, all else is moot. (unless a single-shot levergun is what's wanted)

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[Chuck 100 yd]

Marlins chambered in .35 Rem. and .38-55 commonly have short throats. My .38-55 must have been throated before I bought it as I load .381" cast bullets (250 gr.) without any issue but my .35 Rem. Engraves the bullet when seating a loaded round requiring a fairly soft bullet.
Throating is a fairly simple job with a piloted throating reamer.
Weatherby rifles use a long free bore and accuracy has always been very good in those rifles. Accuracy in a throated rifle depends on many things,bullet size/shape, trueness of loaded ammo and several more variables.the only way to find out is to try it.

Cast bullet designs that fit the bullet to your current throat,chamber and bore size is a better and less expensive way to go. Cast your rifles chamber and have a custom mold cut.

[InTheWoods]

I also have one of the dang short-chambered Browning 53s. Love the gun, hate that aspect of it. I do not believe there is a current jacketed .32 bullet, when seated to the cannelure, that will fit in the chamber. I have tried most of them. Luckily, I have still have hundreds of the old Remington 32-20 100 grain jacketed softpoint bullets on hand that fit perfectly. I use them sparingly and was upset when they discontinued them.

I imagine many of the cast .32 available will have the same problem. Those designed specifically for the 32-20 seem to fit just fine, though (at least in my chamber). I have great luck with Laser-Cast 32-20 115 grain FP .313 hard cast bullets. They have the proper .32-20 ogive and have a nice flat point them seems to smack small game rather well. If these don't work for you, you might consider shortening the cases (?). I, too, considered lengthening my throat, but my experience with the Laser-Cast bullets eleminated that desire.

My Browning 53:

[Blaine]

Anyone every personally lengthened the throat on their lever gun chamber for use with LFN/WFN lead bullets? Is it a straight up process? Is it something that can be done with the barrel still attached to the receiver? What tool/s are needed?

I have a Browning 53 in 32-20 that engraves the rifling on the ogive upon chambering and can't realistically seat the bullet any deeper. Sometimes it will stick the bullet if you attempt to eject the unfired cartridge.

If the throat is lengthened to allow the lead bullets to chamber, how is the rifle for shooting jacketed bullets?

I've usually done things the easy, cheap way even tho it might not be the expert way.
I had a JapChester 1886EL that had a short chamber that didn't like the OAL of the loads for my other two Marlin levers. I seated them a little deeper, and with a Lee Factory Crimp Die, it didn't matter where they crimped at. Doing this will take away from the powder capacity, but will also increase pressures and no doubt even out the powder loss. I doubt you will find this in a manual, but my friend mentioned it, and it worked just fine. (I never get close to max loads, so I was not worried....a chrono confirmed that I was getting about the same FPS with deeper seating, and less powder)

[Malamute]

Throating reamers aren't that expensive, and you may be able to rent one. It can be done on the gun, just remove the bolt.

Ive heard of some class instructors having 5.56 throating reamers on hand for classes when people show up with 223 chambered guns and have pressure problems shooting actual 5.56 ammo, so they run the reamer in by hand and deal with it. BTW, not all guns marked 5.56 are actually 5.56 chambered. The throat is the only significant difference. If it were me in your situation, id ream the throat and not have to worry about what bullets I could use. I decided some time ago that if I liked a gun, but it needed some change for me to truly enjoy using it to its potential, it was getting changed. This is an unseen and relatively minor change in any event. I wouldn't sweat it in the least.

[Ray Newman]

Do believe that Pete44ru is onto something....

[hfcable]

yes, did it on a browning 1886 45/70 - a friend did that one for me..he is better at disassembly than i am

and on a 44 mag takedown i did it myself, only took 15-20 minutes going slowly by hand with the reamer...checking periodically to see if i had done enough

now both rifles handle all the rounds they should handle.....and accuracy was not degraded.

highly recommend it. no use to put up with the aggravation.

[crs]

Yes. I had the chamber lengthened on my Miroku Winchester 1895 to allow crimping the 400 grain Woodlesigh bullets on their cannelure. This worked well and did not adversly effect the velocity of my 300 grain loads.
In the 1895, this does allow only two of the longer COL cartridges to be put in the magazine wothout causing a nuicance jam.
I solved this for my Cape buffalo hunt by first loading two 300 grain North Fork flat point solids, followed by two 400 grain Woodie solids. Just before things got interesting , I loaded a 400 grain Woodie soft into the chamber. This worked well. Horns now on my wall.

[Tycer]

Throating reamers aren't that expensive, and you may be able to rent one. It can be done on the gun, just remove the bolt.

The throat is the only significant difference. If it were me in your situation, id ream the throat and not have to worry about what bullets I could use. I decided some time ago that if I liked a gun, but it needed some change for me to truly enjoy using it to its potential, it was getting changed. This is an unseen and relatively minor change in any event. I wouldn't sweat it in the least.

This.
I have throated a Miroku 86 EL, two Rossi 357 and several Win 94 357.
I say go for it. Use proper cutting type lube and check your work often. You want your cast bullets engraved a bit and your jacketed a couple thou off the lands. A 5 degree throat is pretty sweet.

[InTheWoods]

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IMO, a more important question would be: Will the rounds loaded with the longer bootlits actually feed from the magazine to the chamber in YOUR rifle ?

No tickee, no laundry - if they won't pass muster, all else is moot. (unless a single-shot levergun is what's wanted)

.

If the OP's 53 is like mine, it is the shape of the ogive that is causing the problem, not the overall catridge length. Almost any factory bullet (except those specifically designed for the 32-20) will engrave the rifling when the cartridge is loaded to the correct overall length in Browning's edition of the 53. Lengthening the throat will prevent cartridges loaded to the correct length from engraving the rifling and will feed just fine with a larger variety of current bullets (not just those designed for the 32-20).

Bullets designed specifically for the 32-20 begin to narrow diameter rapidly right AT the cannelure. Most other .32 bullets seem to narrow either at a slower rate or begin that narrowing somewhat 'north' of the cannelure, causing this headache in the Browning 53s. Of course, using bullets labeled specifically for the 32-20 (and loaded to the correct overall length) is cheaper than lengthening the throat and work just fine for me, including feeding.

[abcollector]

Thanks guys for all the replies. I'm glad to know that I just have to remove the bolt to do a throating job. I didn't want to remove the barrel.
Yes, it is the ogive and Brownings short, short throats that are the issue, not OAL. In the mean time the suggestion to trim the cases shorter is a good one and I'll try that out until I can get/rent a throat reamer.
Great ideas!

[Buck Elliott]

I've throated several Miroku '86 leverguns, chambered for .45-70.
For all practical purposes, those guns have no actual throat, and other calibers may be the same..
I used a friend's .458 Lott throating reamer, and didn't have to disassemble beyond removing the bolt..